The operator of a website designed to allow searches for people's contact details has been issued with an enforcement order by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). It is the first time the ICO has issued an order over a website.

The finals of the first ever European* Code Jam, based on Google US's annual programming contest, saw Pole Tomasz Czajka finish in a triumphant first place, in a final that was dominated by competitors from Eastern Europe.

Chip maker Nat Semi has asked 35 employees it has made redundant to return the 30GB iPod each was given last month. Many of the workers thought the music players were a gift, but no, according to their former employer, the devices were not presents but communications tools.

Hot on the heels of our piece yesterday on the eBay transfer of footballing Portugeezer Cristiano Ronaldo, we can now report that what started as a mere national disaster quickly transformed itself into a genuine national emergency:

What with North Korea's recent rocketry shenanigans, Reg Hardware readers' revelation of what could be the silliest USB add-on yet couldn't have come at a less tasteful time. But what the heck, here it is, the USB-powered missile launcher.

Comment
The Nokia representatives at the World Cup media gathering called this week by Texas Instruments, wanted us to take one thing away, that the mobile TV market will be won by open standards and a competitive eco-system.

Many of the attendees at Citrix iForum in Edinburgh had probably been aware of much of the content of Citrix CEO and president Mark Templeton's keynote already (Centralis had shared much of it with its customers a month or so back, for example, which makes its seminars good value).

Graphics card maker GeCube this week announced it as started shipping ATI Radeon X1300- and X16090-based boards with full HDCP support to ensure HDMI-connected HD TVs will display content at the maximum resolution.

Metal detectors have feelings too, apparently. Last Friday a team of crack (are you sure about this? - Ed) coppers leapt to the defence of one being verbalised by a Goth at Highbury & Islington station, and spot-fined the miscreant £80.

Comment
The New York Times ran an enchanting piece about a cable engineer this week, deserting a 20 year career in cable to go and work for AT&T's new IPTV U-Verse service. They asked him why he's switched and he served the reporter a lot of platitudes about how AT&T's proposition is going to work out.

White Chocolate, anyone? That's what LG today said it will offer around the world later this year. It will also offer a pink version of the popular slimline slider phone, and it has plans to ship a range of "unique" colour schemes too.

LogoWatch
It's been pretty quiet of late on the corporate rebranding front - or at least that sector of the front manned by elite Strategy Boutique divisions facing the allied forces of reason and sanity across a no man's land littered with the casualties of previous whalesong and joss-stick driven corporate frontage paradigm shifts.

Analysis
A Home Affairs Committee report into police detention powers, published earlier this week, concludes that police powers to hold terror suspects without charge will need to be extended from 28 days to 90 days - and, once the flimsier justifications (e.g. time needed for prayers) have been stripped out, technology is largely to blame. The Committee, which has an impressive track record of criticising the Government but somehow ending up agreeing with it anyway, takes into account the international nature of current terrorist threats, the security services' need to mount 'pre-emptive' operations in order to 'protect the public', encryption, the burden of data analysis, and the logistics of forensics in general in order to come to its conclusions.

EasyTycoon Stelios Haji-Ioannou has cut and run from his Netherlands EasyMobile virtual network operation. Customers were notified by no-frills email this morning they have until 1 August to find a new provider.

Analysis
World+Dog is relaying news originally posted on Bloomberg that Microsoft's rumoured 'iPod killer' could be out in time for Christmas. But the question the reports don't address is how, if even the likes of Sony are unable to hinder the iPod's market domiance, Microsoft is going to do so with what could very well be a me-too machine?

Australia is to change its broadcasting laws to encompass webcasts in reaction to general outrage over an alleged sexual assault on the show which was "streamed online and not shown on television", the BBC reports.

Exclusive
Sun Microsystems next week will introduce the world to its latest gamble. The hardware maker is set to dish out a number of new Opteron-based systems – some of which will be like nothing else on the market from a Tier 1. All told, Sun's grand hardware release caps off a three- to four-year effort meant to revitalize sales and make Sun hot again.